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Instagram ‘zunifraud’: Seventh Generation Fund director files defamation complaint
Tia Oros Peters and Seven Generation Fund Lawsuit. Photo by Sara Marcum
The director of an international, nonprofit grantmaking organization serving Indigenous peoples has filed a defamation complaint against unnamed defendants. An exhibit in the complaint includes posts from an Instagram account called “zunifraud,” in which one post reads, “exposing Tia Nichols/Oros/Peters/Hummingbird.”
A court hearing has been scheduled for Thursday in Santa Clara County Superior Court. The complaint was filed last January by the Seventh Generation Fund and Tia Oros Peters, the executive director of the multimillion-dollar grantmaking fund.
Exhibit A in the Seventh Generation Fund-Peters complaint includes several Instagram posts which question the self-proclaimed Zuni identity of Peters. The lawsuit lists defendants as “Does 1 through 5,” as in John or Jane Doe. The complaint states that Instagram “post messages containing defamatory content regarding Indigenous heritage” would be “severely harming” to Peters’ reputation if anyone viewed the content.
Meanwhile, the Seventh Generation Fund and Peters complaint raises the trending concern of high-profile professionals mired in false claims to American Indian identity, people who can’t readily prove they belong to a specific Native community or tribe.
Self-identification has raised concerns among many in both Canada and the United States setting the stage for a tripartite cast of characters. This includes those pretending to be Indian, often called “pretendians,” and those actual Natives who defend them, “defendians.”
University of Alberta professor Kim TallBear, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, refers to the third cast as the “pretendian resistance.” She told Buffalo’s Fire the resistance consists of a network of people across Indian Country, including victims of pretendian fraud, Native community members, and both reservation and urban Natives.
“Many of them are professionals working in fields where Native identity fraud is rampant, such as in universities, literature, TV and film, museums and arts,” said TallBear. “Many of those involved do not want to be in the public eye due to threats of harassment and risks to their livelihoods.”
In Canada, it’s estimated that Indigenous identity fraud includes at least 100,000 people and may be as high as 250,000, according to attorney Jean Teillet. She wrote a commissioned report on “Indigenous Identity Fraud” for the University of Saskatchewan.
“Calls for action from Indigenous people had been mounting from all sectors, all demanding that institutions take steps to stem the tide of individuals who are claiming, with questionable or no evidence, an Indigenous identity in order to gain access to jobs, money, awards, and prestige,” wrote Teillet.
In an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio, Teillet said approximately 25 percent of academics in Canada are frauds.
TallBear said Canadian institutions have been taking advanced steps to address false claims to Indigenous identity and that the United States should follow a similar path.
Most Native people in the United States can simply provide proof of being enrolled with one of the 574 federally-recognized tribes in the United States. First Nations in Canada also have similar enrollment criteria.
Meanwhile, a slew of pretendians share similar stories on why they aren’t enrolled. A common trope is they were adopted by white families. Others say they grew up on family lore where they were told they had a Native grandparent or Indigenous ancestor.
While many Natives are unenrolled due to blood quantum or other enrollment requirements of a tribe, those individuals can readily identify a parent or a relative on the tribal rolls. “They are very different than the people who are relying on family lore stories,” said TallBear.
Recent unmaskings of several notable pretendians in the United States includes Elizabeth Hoover, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who self-identified as Mohawk and Mi’kmaq. In Hoover’s letter of apology on May 1, she wrote: “I am a white person who has incorrectly identified as Native my whole life, based on incomplete information.”
Almost seven months earlier, a collective statement was circulated by people calling for Hoover’s resignation from Berkeley. To date, 391 people have signed the letter that addressed harm caused by Hoover, who was a leading figure in the Native food sovereignty movement.
“Calls for action from Indigenous people had been mounting from all sectors, all demanding that institutions take steps to stem the tide of individuals who are claiming, with questionable or no evidence, an Indigenous identity in order to gain access to jobs, money, awards, and prestige.”
Jean Teillet, Attorney
Last fall, another pretendian, activist, and actress Sacheen Littlefeather, was outed as an ethnic fraud. Littlefeather is best known for her 1973 Academy Award appearance when she took the stage on behalf of Marlon Brando. She refused to accept his Best Actor award for his role in “The Godfather.” Instead, she spoke of the plight of American Indians. Littlefeather self-identified as White Mountain Apache and Yaqui.
In the Seventh Generation Fund-Peters’ complaint, an exhibit includes a link to the obituary of Andrew Nichols, a man of Jewish descent and born in Hungary, names Peters as his daughter. Peters self-identifies as Zuni.
In Peters’ case, the zunifraud Instagram account implores the Seventh Generation Fund executive director to provide proof of her claim to being Zuni. “What we are asking for is typical Indigenous protocol. Who is your family? What is your line? Being that you insert yourself as a leader and take up Native philanthropy space doesn’t exclude you from customary protocol.
“You have taken celebrity interviews, accepted millions of dollars of funds from private foundations, and have self-proclaimed to be an Indigenous leader in many arenas. We are just asking for proof that you are what you claim,” wrote the zunifraud account holder, who is listed as Doe in the complaint.
Buffalo’s Fire has sought comment via email and phone calls to Seventh Generation Fund board members as well as to Peters and SGF board president Chris Peters, who is Tia Peters’ husband. Board member, Helene Gaddie, also a Seventh Generation Fund program participant, declined comment.
No one associated with Seventh Generation Fund responded to requests to discuss the defamation complaint, which also includes allegations of online harassment and emotional distress.
On June 8, however, the Seventh Generation Fund board of directors released a statement on the organization’s website. “Our leadership stands undeterred in our commitment to our President, CEO, and others in the organization, as well as the organization itself. We understand the spiritual dimension of this centuries-long struggle and urge everyone to abide by the teachings of respect, compassion, and integrity in all matters,” wrote SGF board chair Henrietta Mann, Cheyenne, .
Last spring, the Seventh Generation Fund was the target of additional disparaging allegations. Annita Lucchesi, executive director of the Sovereign Bodies Institute – once under fiscal oversight of the Seventh Generation Fund until July 2020 — issued an apology regarding the grant-making non-profit organization. In a letter dated May 6, 2022, Lucchesi retracted several previous allegations she released about the Seventh Generation Fund.
Among the retractions, Lucchesi wrote: “To my knowledge, they (Seventh Generation Fund) are not protecting sexual abusers. Any statement that they are protecting abusers or not providing support to organizations providing support to MMIWG2 organizations is, to my knowledge, untrue.”
To date, Peters and the Seventh Generation Fund have failed to appear at previous Santa Clara County Superior Court hearings regarding the defamation complaint.